Etihad miles expired (due to slow customer service) – advice?

[ydz]

I have been a reader for HfP for a while, but this is my first post in the forum! Would appreciate some advice from you all.

I have some miles with Etihad that were due to expire in late Sep this year. I took Hainan/Brussels Airlines flights in August (which should keep my old miles alive for another 18 months), which I emailed the Etihad customer service team about shortly thereafter. While the initial response was quite prompt and positive (“I have successfully forwarded your request to the relevant team, who will add the Guest miles as per eligibility to your Etihad Guest account”), those new miles never showed up despite the fact that I’ve been chasing them via email for two months. As my existing miles had expired after the deadline, I emailed them again (with a slightly more stern tone) and I got this response (“I have raised this concern about the expired miles with the relevant team if possible that it will be reinstated given that you have sent an email to us before the expiration date.”).

Another two weeks have passed and now I’ve lost hope of reinstating my previous miles let alone adding those new ones. Any advice?

Thanks!

[ms]

I’m absolutely livid and need to vent. I just lost 60,000 Etihad Guest miles – because I was 2 days late in realizing their new draconian expiry policy had kicked in.

For years, I’ve diligently kept my account active with small credit card transfers. Now they’ve suddenly decided we need to actually fly with them or a partner every 18 months? And they wiped out my entire balance just like that?

60,000 miles… All gone because of a policy change I wasn’t properly notified about! Not a single email!

Has anyone managed to get their miles reinstated after expiry?

[OnTheRun]

Sorry to hear about your points, but just to say that Etihad hasn’t “suddenly decided” this change.

The changes were emailed on 26th February 2024 (filed in my “Etihad” folder 🙂)

The link in the email goes to this publicly available web page:

https://www.etihad.com/en/guest/loyalty-relaunch

Which also outlines the policy.

Could it be that you’re not subscribed to Etihad’s updates?

Not sure if you can plead your case, maybe the HfP gurus can advise.